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Jaron Lanier
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Antigua
The village is a page out of Guatemala's colonial past. We stroll on 400-year-old cobblestone streets, past dozens of low-slung sandstone buildings washed in light. To the south, a mist-draped volcano, Agua, looms over the town, rising 12,356 feet above sea level.
Antigua, at its height, was said to be the most beautiful city in Latin America. The third Spanish capital in the New World after Mexico City and Lima, it flourished as a center of culture and commerce from 1543 to 1773, when an earthquake leveled the city.
Many of the colonial-era structures destroyed in the quake were rebuilt in the original baroque style. Today, Antigua is a living museum — a city of churches, monasteries and tile-roofed estates both restored and in decay.
Most of the action takes place in the center of town at the main square. Long ago there were bullfights and public hangings here; now the square is a place of gardens, fountains and peddlers.
At El Jardin, a small lunch spot on the west side of the square, we meet Edgar, a young, ruddy-faced Guatemalan studying English at a local school. An Indian woman approaches our table, dangles a necklace of jade and offers it for 100 quetzales, about $40. "Te gusta? Es muy precioso."
Edgar takes the strand and launches into a consumer-awareness number. "A lot of people get ripped off buying fake stones," he says, setting down his Gallo beer. He turns the necklace in his hand, looking for traces of green dust inside the green hole where the stone is strung.
"Yes, looks real," he says, "but let's be sure." He scratches the stone against his beer bottle, slicing the glass. "That's real, all right. Jade is harder than marble. Marble is softer; it won't cut glass."
After lunch we wander across the square to the Cathedral of Santiago, first built in 1543. Only its magnificent outer shell remains; inside is a vast array of fallen arches broken columns and collapsed walls.
Before the day is out we hit upon Casa de Artes, an art shop with intricate textile weavings, handicrafts and pottery; the Jade Factory and Showroom, where newly quarried jade is carved; el mercado, where the stalls overflow with mangoes, papayas and bananas; and Musea Kojoa, a private museum you won't find on the tourist maps (it's five blocks west of the square), which features ancient Mayan instruments, including the precursor of the marimba.
From Guatemala City, it's only a 40-minute drive up the Pan-American Highway to Antigua.
Guatemala: An introduction
Tikal
Antigua
Panajachel/Lake Atitlan
Chichicastenango
Guatemala resources
Guatemala photo gallery
Travel articles
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